T. Rex were an English glam
rock band fronted by guitarist, singer
and songwriter
Marc Bolan. Formed as
Tyrannosaurus Rex in 1960s London, the
folk rock group's debut album
My People Were Fair and Had Sky in Their Hair...
But Now They're Content to Wear Stars on Their Brows
(1968) reached number 15 in the UK. In the 1970s, they achieved
mainstream success as a
glam rock band
with hits such as "
Hot Love,"
"
Get It On," "
Telegram Sam" and "
Metal
Guru." After waning commercial success in the mid-70s, T. Rex
ended in 1977 after Bolan was killed in a car accident.
History
Formation and folk era
Marc Bolan founded Tyrannosaurus Rex in August 1967.
After a solitary
performance as a four-piece at the Electric Garden in Covent Garden
, the group immediately broke up. Bolan
retained the services of percussionist
Steve Peregrin Took and the duo began
performing acoustic material with occasional homages to
Gene Vincent and
Eddie
Cochran. The combination of Bolan's
acoustic guitar and distinctive
vocal style with Took's
bongos and
assorted percussion—which often included children's instruments
such as the
Pixiephone—earned them a
devoted following in the thriving underground scene.
Disc jockey John Peel
befriended the band and ferried them to and from gigs in his
Mini. Peel later appeared on record with them,
reading stories written by Bolan. Another key collaborator was
producer
Tony Visconti, who went on to
produce the band's albums well into their second, "glam rock",
phase.
By 1968, Tyrannosaurus Rex had become a modest success on radio and
on record, and had released three albums. While Bolan's early
material was
rock and roll-influenced
folk, by now he was writing dramatic and
Baroque songs with lush melodies and surreal
lyrics filled with
Greek and
Persian mythology as well as
creations of his own. The band became regulars on Peel Sessions on
BBC radio, and toured Britain's student union
halls. The group, however, received bad press from journalists and
critics, who were annoyed at the overexposure they were getting on
Peel's radio shows.
By 1969 there was a clear rift between the two halves of
Tyrannosaurus Rex.
While Bolan and his girlfriend June Child
were living a quiet life, Took had fully embraced the
anti-commercial/community-spirited/drug-taking ethos of the UK Underground scene centred around Ladbroke Grove
. Took was also attracted to anarchistic
elements such as
Mick Farren/
Deviants and members of the
Pink Fairies Rock 'n' Roll and Drinking
Club.
Took was writing his own songs and wanted the duo to perform them,
but Bolan firmly refused. Took contributed his talents and two
songs to
Twink's
Think
Pink album, which Bolan probably also did not approve of.
Bolan's relationship with Took ended after
Unicorn,
although they were contractually obliged to go through with a US
tour which was doomed before it began. Poorly promoted and planned,
the acoustic duo were overshadowed by the loud electric acts they
were billed with. To counter this, Took drew from the
shock rock style of
Iggy
Pop; Took explained, "
I took my shirt off in the Sunset
Strip where we were playing and whipped myself till everybody shut
up. With a belt, y'know, a bit of blood and the whole of
Los Angeles shuts up. 'What's going on, man, there's some
nutter attacking himself on stage' I mean, Iggy Stooge had the same
basic approach."
As soon as he returned to the UK, Bolan replaced Took with bongo
player
Mickey Finn. They made
A Beard of Stars, the
final album under the Tyrannosaurus Rex moniker. Unlike Took, Finn
had no songwriting aspirations; Tony Visconti commented he was not
so talented as Took, "Mickey wasn't as inventive as Steve. Mickey's
backing vocals weren't strong, so Marc would double-track them with
his own voice for reinforcement".
Glam rock and commercial success
As well as progressively shorter titles, Tyrannosaurus Rex's albums
began to show higher production values, more accessible songwriting
from Bolan, and experimentation with electric guitars and a true
rock sound. The breakthrough was "King of the Rumbling Spires"
(recorded with Took), which used a full rock band. The group's next
album,
T. Rex, continued the process of
simplification by shortening the name, and completed the move to
electric guitars. Visconti supposedly got fed up with writing the
name out in full on studio chitties and tapes and began to
abbreviate it; when Bolan first noticed he was angry but later
claimed the idea was his. The new sound was more pop-oriented, and
the first single, "
Ride a White
Swan", reached number two in the UK in late 1970. In early
1971,
T. Rex reached the Top 20 of the
UK album charts.
"Ride a White Swan" was quickly followed by a second single,
"
Hot Love"—which reached
the top spot on the UK charts, and remained there for six weeks. A
full band, which featured bassist
Steve
Currie and drummer
Bill Legend, was
formed to tour to growing audiences, as teenagers began replacing
the
hippies of old. After Chelita Secunda
added two spots of glitter under Bolan's eyes before an appearance
on
Top of the Pops, the
ensuing performance would often be viewed as the official birth of
glam rock. After Bolan's display, glam
rock would gain popularity in the UK and Europe during 1971-72. T.
Rex's move to electric guitars coincided with Bolan's more overtly
sexual lyrical style and image. The group's new image and sound
outraged some of Bolan's older hippie fans, who branded him a
"
sell-out". Some of the lyrical content
of Tyrannosaurus Rex remained, but the fairy tales about wizards
and magic were now interspersed with sensuous grooves, replete with
orgiastic moans and innuendo.
In September 1971, T. Rex released their second album
Electric Warrior, which featured
Currie and Legend. Often considered to be their best album, the
chart-topping
Electric Warrior brought much commercial
success to the group; publicist
BP Fallon
coined the term "T. Rextasy" as a parallel to
Beatlemania to describe the group's popularity.
The album included T. Rex's best-known song, "
Get It On," which hit number one in
the UK. In January 1972 it became a Top Ten hit in the US, where
the song was retitled "Bang a Gong (Get It On)" to distinguish it
from a 1971 song by the group
Chase.
Along with
David Bowie's early hits,
"Get It On" was among the few British glam rock songs that was
successful in the US. However, the album still recalled Bolan's
acoustic roots with ballads such as "Cosmic Dancer" and the stark
"Girl". Soon after, Bolan left
Fly
Records; after his contract had lapsed, the label released the
album track "
Jeepster" as a single
without his permission. Bolan went to
EMI, where
he was given his own record label in the UK—T. Rex Records, the "T.
Rex Wax Co.".
On 18 March 1972, T.
Rex played two shows at the Empire Pool, Wembley
which were filmed by Ringo
Starr and his crew for Apple
Films. A large part of the second show was included on
Bolan's own rock film
Born to
Boogie, while bits and pieces of the first show can be
seen throughout the film's end-credits. Along with T. Rex and
Starr,
Born to Boogie also features
Elton John, who jammed with the friends to create
rocking studio versions of "
Children of the
Revolution" and "
Tutti
Frutti"; Elton John had appeared on TV with Bolan before,
miming the piano part of "Get it On" on the 1971 Christmas edition
of
Top of the Pops.
T. Rex's third album
The Slider
was released in July 1972. The band's most successful album in the
US,
The Slider wasn't as successful as its predecessor in
the UK, where it peaked at the fourth spot. During spring/summer
1972, Bolan's old label Fly released the chart-topping compilation
album
Bolan Boogie, a
collection of singles, B-sides and LP tracks, which affected
The Slider's sales. Although the two singles from
The
Slider, "
Telegram Sam" and
"
Metal Guru", both flopped in the US,
they became number one hits in the UK.
Born to Boogie
premiered at the Oscar One cinema in London, in December 1972. The
film received negative reviews from critics, while it was loved by
fans.
Decline and resurgence
Tanx (1973) would mark the end of the
classic T. Rex line up. An album full of melancholy ballads and
rich production,
Tanx showcased the T. Rex sound bolstered
by extra instrumental embellishments such as Mellotron and
saxophone. During the recording T. Rex members began to quit,
starting with Bill Legend in November 1973. Legend felt alienated
by Bolan's increasingly egotistical behaviour, which was fed by
success, money,
cocaine, and
brandy.
Zinc
Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow was released on 1
February 1974, and reached number 12 in the UK. The album harked
back to the Tyrannosaurus Rex days with long song-titles and
lyrical complexity, but was not a critical success, T. Rex by now
had an extended line-up which included second guitarist
Jack Green and
BJ
Cole on pedal steel. Soon after the album's release, Bolan
split with producer Tony Visconti. And then in December 1974,
Mickey Finn too left T. Rex.
Bolan's Zip Gun (1975) was
self-produced by Bolan who, in addition to writing the songs, gave
his music a harder, more futuristic sheen. The final song recorded
with Visconti, "Till Dawn", was re-recorded for
Bolan's Zip
Gun with Bolan at the controls. Bolan's own productions were
not well received in the music press;
Rolling Stone magazine gave
Zinc
Alloy one star out of five, while the British press slammed T.
Rex for copying Bowie's
The
Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
Always a fantasist with an alleged
Napoleon complex, during this time Bolan
became increasingly isolated, while high tax rates in the UK drove
him into
exile in Monte Carlo and the US.
No longer a vegetarian, Bolan grew heavy on a diet of hamburgers
and alcohol, and was ridiculed in the music press.
T. Rex's penultimate album,
Futuristic Dragon (1976), featured a
schizophrenic production style that veered from
wall of sound-style songs to nostalgic nods to
the old T. Rex boogie machine. It only managed to reach number 50,
but the album was better received by the critics and featured the
singles "New York City" (number 15 in the UK) and "Dreamy Lady"
(number 30). To promote the album, T. Rex toured the UK, and
performed on television shows such as
Top of the Pops,
Supersonic and
Get It Together.
In the summer of 1976, T. Rex released two more singles, "I Love to
Boogie" (which charted at number 13) and "Laser Love", which made
number 42. In early 1977
Dandy in the Underworld was
released to critical acclaim. Bolan had slimmed down and regained
his elfin looks, and the songs too had a stripped-down, streamlined
sound. A spring UK tour with
punk band
The Damned on support garnered
positive reviews. As Bolan was enjoying a new surge in popularity,
he talked about performing again with Finn and Took, as well as
reuniting with producer Tony Visconti.
Bolan's death and breakup
Marc Bolan and his girlfriend
Gloria
Jones spent the evening of 15 September 1977 drinking at the
Speakeasy and then dining at Morton's club on Berkeley Square,
central London.
While driving home early the morning of 16
September, Jones crashed Bolan's purple Mini 1275GT into a tree
(now the site of Bolan's Rock
Shrine), at Barnes
Bridge
, Barnes
, South West
London—less than a mile from his home at 142 Upper Richmond Road
West in East
Sheen
. While Jones was severely injured, Bolan was
killed in the crash, two weeks before his 30th birthday.
In a radio interview with
Nicky Horne in
1973, Horne asked, "Where does Marc Bolan hope to be in five years
time?" Bolan replied, "I hope to be alive still, that's all I can
say". Bolan is reported to have told Gloria Jones he didn't expect
to see 30 or his son's second birthday. A copy of the
NME found in Bolan's wrecked Mini car was open at
an interview with
Pete Townshend, the
headline on the interview reading, "Hope I Die Before I Get
Old".
Bolan's death caused the end of T. Rex but former member Mickey
Finn and latter-day T. Rex session drummer Paul Fenton formed
Mickey Finn's T-Rex in 1997
along with several other musicians including vocalist
Rob Benson and former
Smokie guitarist
Alan
Silson. Following Finn's death in 2003 the remaining members
continued on as T. Rex (A Celebration of Mark and Mickey) and have
since reverted to Mickey Finn's T-Rex with the blessing of Mickey's
family.
Influence
T. Rex have vastly influenced the
glam
rock,
punk rock and
Britpop genres. Many modern
indie bands play music heavily influenced by
the glam scene. The early acoustic material was influential in
helping to bring about
progressive
rock and 21st century
folk
music-influenced singers.
Discography
- As Tyrannosaurus Rex
- As T. Rex
Members
Notes
john truelove drummer
References
- Paytress, Mark. "Marc Bolan: T. Rextasy". Mojo. May 2005.
- Paytress, Mark. Bolan: The Rise and Fall of a 20th Century
Superstar. Omnibus Press. 2003.
- McLenehan, Cliff. Marc Bolan: 1947–1977 A Chronology.
Helter Skelter Publishing. 2002.
- Ewens, Carl. Born to Boogie: The Songwriting of Marc
Bolan. Aureus Publishing. 2007.
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